Anti-drone protests hit CEO's home

San Diego Police Sgt. Dan Sayasane looks on as a small radio controlled quadcopter to simulate a drone lands in the hand of CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin during an anti-drone protest in front of the La Jolla home of James Neal Blue, CEO of General Atomics, makers of drones used by the military. The drone was confiscated as it violated an ordinance requiring a permit to fly. It was returned with the understanding it wouldn't fly again without a permit.
— Howard Lipin

San Diego Police Sgt. Dan Sayasane looks on as a small radio controlled quadcopter to simulate a drone lands in the hand of CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin during an anti-drone protest in front of the La Jolla home of James Neal Blue, CEO of General Atomics, makers of drones used by the military. The drone was confiscated as it violated an ordinance requiring a permit to fly. It was returned with the understanding it wouldn't fly again without a permit.
— Howard Lipin

The San Diego Military Advisory Council and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation are leading an effort to have the area certified as one of six congressional mandate drone test sites. Similar applications have come from dozens of other groups in 37 other states eying the potential for thousands of additional jobs and millions more being pumped into the local economy.

Mark Cafferty heads the EDC’s role in the application and says winning the designation would be a boon.

“Unmanned systems are critical to advancing everything from firefighting to protecting agriculture to search and rescue efforts, predicting weather and inspecting utility lines,” he said. “This is a significant local economic opportunity for an industry rooted in the region that is developing cutting edge technology with humanitarian, practical and safety purposes. We see this as a smart economic strategy at a time when our economy continues to face numerous challenges.”

Cafferty stressed that the Federal Aviation Administration, which will select the six test sites as part of its work to develop regulations for drones over U.S. airspace, has indicated no flights would take place over the San Diego metro area.

At the Veterans Legal Clinic at the University of San Diego, supervising attorney and former Marine Robert Muth said drones provide war zone commanders an invaluable resource.

“They give a great battlefield picture and can provide intelligence and a strike capability,” he said. “The question is what is the framework for review of how they’re being used and who gets to make those decisions.”

He also predicted more will be flying in American airspace as police and other agencies increasingly seek to employ them, a prospect that chills civil libertarians.

“The key will be finding a way to balance their very valuable benefits to law enforcement while keeping in mind privacy rights and making sure we don’t become a police state,” Muth said.

One of the demonstrators, 83-three-year-old Miriam Clark of Encinitas, said she worries about the same.

“We somehow manage to turn everything that can be beneficial into something lethal,” Clark said.